Welcome to my blog where I talk about video games I’ve played during this week. The title is kinda self explanatory, I tend to play games a lot later after they’ve released (mostly because they’re cheaper after being out for months). The theme of this episode is Tax Return, because I treated myself to some video games.

KINGDOM HEARTS FINAL MIX

KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX

With Kingdom Hearts III finally out, I decided to start the Kingdom Hearts series from the very beginning. I am 10% familiar with the series, I have played the first game and got the secret ending and I played Kingdom Hearts II and got as far as the Mulan world. The prologue was super confusing with the Roxas storyline and from what I’ve heard, it starts to make sense later on(?).

I’m skipping the play-through of 358/2 and Recoded and just go straight through the videos. I’m looking forward to playing Birth by Sleep, and anything with Aqua (she seems cool). However, I am not looking forward to playing Re Chain of Memories, but I’m keeping an open mind when I eventually get to that part of the series.

At the time of this post, I am at Agrabah. The only frustrating parts I’ve dealt with so far is the debacle at Destiny Island and fighting the Trick Master.

KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX

Starting off with Destiny Island, and this is about that race with Riku (which I only managed to beat him once). On the race you have to touch that damn star, so I did and then fell on the tree tops because the camera is amazing, especially when it comes to platforming. Riku has already won 5 minutes prior. Then Kairi and Riku tell me that I didn’t touch the tree, so I have to go all the way back, I make sure to slam Sora against the tree and then I FINALLY finish the race.

I also struggled with the Trick Master (Alice in Wonderland world) because the camera is awful and so are the platforming segments. After that, it has been smooth sailing. Didn’t have any issues with the other bosses and I here I am at Agrabah. I don’t remember much of the later worlds so I’m excited about revisiting them.

POKEMON: LET’S GO PIKACHU

I’ve been playing this game a lot. I’m currently at Vermillion City (just beat Lt. Surge). My Pikachu is overpowered because of all of the candy that I’ve given him. He also likes giving high fives. The other Pokemon are a tad under-leveled as the recent battle was difficult.

I read up on the mechanics because it’s no longer battle/grind and more catch Pokemon and grind. One of my fears was that I was going to run out of Pokeballs right at the start but that doesn’t seem to be the case because I have way too many Great Balls already.

Finding out how to get candy was a struggle as it took a bit to figure out how to send Pokemon to Professor Oak. Also, didn’t realize that the rival from the Red/Blue (Green) series was in the game. I thought he was the super friendly rival character.

Motion controls have never been a favorite. I wish that I could use both controls for one player while the Switch is docked. Playing in handheld mode isn’t bad though.

I enjoy how simplistic the game is though and Pikachu is so damn adorable. I’m excited about revisiting all of the classic Pokemon locations. Also going through Mt. Moon wasn’t as painful as it is with all the random battles in the original games. I also need to expand on using other Pokemon rather than my current 6 (Pikachu, Gloom, Pidgeotto, Charmeleon, Ivysaur and Wartortle).

The next gym leader is Erika but I’m going to take my time and train all of my Pokemon. The grind isn’t as exhausting as it was in the previous games though the catching mechanics can get annoying. So we shall see how the rest of this game goes.

Honorable mentions also go to Dark Souls as I got the DS Trilogy steenbok and I suck at the game. I made it to the first boss and did the jumping stab but missed. I’ll talk more about that game later though. Next time, we continue with these games and also take care of the backlog on my Switch.

I’m a little less than 6 months late to the Octopath party but I finally started playing the game and it’s everything I wanted it to be. Simple on the story with a crap ton of characters with their “micro-campaigns.” I did download the demo for the Switch, with its 3 hour play time but got distracted by other things at the time so I never got around to playing it. 5 months later, Christmas came and I was finally able to carve some time out to start on the story.

I have recently gotten back to reading books and continued my book hoarding ways. I decided that I’m going to try to blog a little bit more and talk about the books I have been reading and see how it goes. This post is going to be a cluster of things but I hope you enjoy!

We are all a little weird inside. Some people choose to embrace it while others don’t realize that they are weird. And then there are those who criticize other people for their weirdness while they have something in them that’s weird as well (and they are aware of it). The later usually happens when you are a teenager and exploring who you really are, and it can be difficult at times.

Weirdos (directed by Bruce McDonald) tells us a story about Kit (played by Dylan Authors) and the struggles of being different while having random conversations with an imaginary Andy Warhol. Kit is 15 years old, his parents divorced and he’s coming to terms that he is gay. This film is also set in 1976, and it was a little harder to come out as gay back then.

The world of truckers is a world that hardly anyone knows about, unless you’re a trucker or if you play those trucking simulator games. And if I were a trucker, I would keep the mystery alive. We see them every day, going to work, driving on the highway, etc. We tend to pass them, or (if we drive slow) they will pass us. They also communicate with each other on the CB radios. At least that’s what we see in the movies. Which brings us to our movie review.

“Convoy” is an action movie, directed by Sam Peckinpah, and stars Kris Kristofferson (as Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald) and Ali MacGraw (as Melissa). The movie is based on the song “Convoy” by C.W. McCall. You’ve heard the song in at least some capacity and if you haven’t then you will certainly hear it about 3 times during this movie.

Kuro, the term is Japanese for the color black or ‘dark’. And dark this film is, but it also has a simple plot but told in a very unique way.

I have provided the plot synopsis below because the film got a little confusing and I’ll explain that later on:

Romi, a Japanese woman living in Paris, works in a karaoke bar. At home in the suburbs, she tends to her paraplegic lover Milou. To pass the time she recounts to him a story alluding to a period they once spent together in Japan.

The best way to explain the storytelling in “Kuro” is:

The dialogue does not follow what’s happening on screen.

We never see the stories that Remi recounts, we only hear them (thank God for that).

In the future there are androids, shady accountants and shady accountant androids. There are no enforced dress codes for the police just as long as you wear a tie with no shirt. There are also earthquakes in Tokyo so severe that the city has been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times, which is where this story takes place.

These plot points, though they seem very important, are quickly glossed over within the first five minutes because the focus of the story is our hero Goku, not the earthquakes.